Contact chamber



D. W. WILSON ET AL CONTACT CHAMBER April 23, 1940.

Filed Jan. 27, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 STHNLEYJ. CHUTE Bqw.

ATTORNEY April 23, 1940. n. w. wlLsoN ET AL 2,198,555

CONTACT CHAMBER Filed Jan. 27. 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 A Y -f/ 4 v 1 I I i 1 l Q l .9

4 3 *TIL 4' /3 a l 22 A i H ,20 Z/ a 25* i *u* w i fv- W Il ATTORN EY Patented Apr. 23, 1940 UNITED lSTATES ooN'riic'r chaman Application January 27, 1937, Serial No. 122,654

2 Claims.

Our invention relates to contact chambers, and more particularly to catalytic contact chambers provided with heat exchange means adapted to be used without catalytic material as heat eX- changers.

In many processes employing catalysts, the reaction is either endothermic or exothermic, so

.that it is necessary to supply or remove heat; consequently requiring provision of a` contact chamber `which is at once a contact chamber and a heat exchanger. v f

One object of our invention istc provide a contact chamber construction in which heat may be supplied or removed.

' .Another object of our invention is to provide a'heat exchanger construction in which a large area of heat exchange surface is provided in a minimum of space.

Other and further objects of our invention will appear from the following description.

In the accompanying drawings, which form part of the instant specification and which are to be read in conjunction therewith, and in which like reference numerals are used to indicate like parts in the various views:

Fig. 1y is an elevation of our contact chamber'y Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional elevation of a portion of the contact chamber shown 'in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a sectional View taken on the line 4 4, Fig. 3. l

Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional elevation of a portion of a tube of our contact chamber heat exchanger.

Fig. 6 is a sectional View taken on the line 6 6, Fig. 5.

In general, our invention contemplates the provision of a plurality of tubes containing heat conducting members in which there lmay be positioned, ifdesired, a contact material or catalyst. The tubes are positioned within al chamber into which a heat exchange medium may be introduced and removed for providing heat eX- change and removing or adding heat to material which may be passed through the tubes.

More particularly, referring now to the drawings, a plurality of tubes I have their respective ends secured to tube sheets 2 and 3. Each tube I is formed with one end 4 of reduced diameter, and adjacent tubes are assembled with the portions of reduced diameter alternately secured to the top and bottom of the tube sheets Fig. 1, with parts (cil 2x4-2cm in order to enable the tubes to be closely positicned, sc that a large aggregate internal volume will be provided with respect to the volume of the casing 5'.

Headers l5 and l cover the upper and lower tube sheets respectively. Any suitable assembly may be used. As shown, the casing 5 is 'provided with upper ilange 8 and lower flange '9; The upper'head 6 is provided with a ange I0, and the lower head 7 is provided with a rl-ange I I. Bolts I2 clamp head I to ange 2, and ,bolts I3 clamp headv l to flange 9. An inlet connection I4 is provided in header 6 for the material to be passed through the tubes I, and an loutlet connection I 5 is provided in header I for withdrawing the material passing through the tubes. In Fig. l the contact chamber is designed for an exothermic contact reaction in which large quantities of heat must be removed. Water is introduced into the casing 5 through inlet connections I6 and Il', and steam is withdrawn from connections I8 and i9, it being understood, of course, that suitable baffles for diverting the iiow lof water or Ysteam may be provided, if desired, and any suitable .heat exchanger medium other than water maybe employed as the heat removing'or heat supplying agent. v I f In the case of catalytic use, a catalytic'contact material 2l is placed within the tubes I. In order to prevent ther contact material, .which is usually kieselguhr or small particles of clay on which there has been deposited metals, compounds of metals, or combinations thereof, from falling out of the tubes by gravity, we provide a grid 2B, which supports a heavy mesh screen 2l, which in turn supports a ne mesh screen 22. The 'grid is in turn supported by an annular ange 23 welded or otherwise secured to the header l. This construction may be readily seen by reference to Fig. 3.

In the construction shown, the/chamber may vary in internal diameter fromfl feet-150.16 feet and have a casing length from l feet to 30`feet. The tubes l may vary in size from 1 inch tofG inches (I. D.) internal diameter. The heavy mesh screen may have 1-inch squares, and the ne mesh may be 20 per linear inch.

Inl order to obtain a still further heat lexchange surface or area, We may place in the interstices of the large tubes, smaller tubes 24.

The catalytic material is a poor conductor of heat and in order to remove the heat rapidly, it is desired that no contact material shall be far removed from a heat conductingsurface. For this purpose We employ means for conducting yheat away from the catalytic material, clearly shown in Figs. 4, 5 and 6.

Elongated, corrugated tubes, vanes or flexible spiders 25 of heat conducting material are placed within the tubes I, as shown, two of the elongated corrugated tubes 25 being employed.. 'I'hese are made o f steel, copper, brass or the like, or of any suitable material, and may be ymade of extremely thin material. In order to secure the heat conducting members 25 within the tubes I by friction, We provide an internal spreader 26 of any desired cross sectional shape. 'I'he spreader is adapted to be inserted between the corrugated heat conducting members 25, which are sufciently iiexible to permit its entry. It is contemplated that other means of holding the nexible tubes, vanes or spiders may be employed. In this manner, as will be obvious by reference to Fig. 6, no portion of the catalytic contact mate-l rial is very far removed from a heat conducting surface. 'I'he heat conducting members 25 are in contact with the internal walls of the tube I, and are adapted to conduct heat from within the tube through the walls of the tube I to the heat exchange medium surrounding the tube.

` It will be observed that we have'provided a contact chamber from which heat may be conducted and supplied at comparatively high rates, and in addition are able to maintainl uniformity of temperature throughout the catalytic mass. Our apparatus, for example, would be of value as a heat exchanger between gases or vapors which would be passed through the interior of the tubes, and liquid. It is understood, of course,v that if the chamber is used as a catalytic contact chamber, the interior of the small tubes 24 are also filled with contact material, but since these are of small diameter auxiliary heat exchange means 25 need not be employed, since no portion of the contact material will be very far removed from the metallic heat conducting surface.

From the foregoing it will be seen that we have accomplished the objects of our invention. We have provided a catalytic co-ntact chamber in which exothermic heat of a reaction may be removed, or endothermic heat of a reaction may be supplied at a sufficient rate to enable the process to be conducted'in a continuous manner. Process conditions frequently require close control of temperature, making it imperative` for large amounts of heat to be removed or supplied rapidly. B-y means of our construction we are enabled to control the process temperature within narrow limits, due to the large area of heat exchange surface which we supply. While we have described a single pass for the materials passing through the tubes and the heat exchange, medium around the tubes, it is to be understood that a plurality of passes may be used if desired. For example, both the inlet and outlet connections may be formed in one header and a baffle dividing said header into two chambers provided so that the fluids passing through the tubes will pass downwardly through one set of tubes and upwardly through another set of tubes to the outlet. In additionv to the above a iioating tube sheet construction may be employed. s

The conventional practice in heat exchange construction is to have considerably greater ex-l ternal than internal area with respect to the tubes and the space surrounding the tubes. In the present structure for the areas for which the exchange is contemplated it is most desirable to have the internal area as large as possible and there is no disadvantage in having the external area small, as the circulating fluid is in all cases adequate to remove or supply the heat.

Heat exchangers having the internal area at least 120% of the external area can be readily manufactured according to the structure shown and the proportion of internal to external Vareas of the order of 2M.; to l have been obtained and proportions of 3 to l may be realized..

It will be understood that certain features and sub-combinations are of utility and maybe employed without reference to other features and sub-combinations. This is contemplated by and is within the scope of our claims. It is further obvious that various changes may be made in details within the scope of our claims without departing from the spirit of our invention. It is, therefore, to be understood that our invention is not to be limited to the specic details shown and described.

Having thus described our invention, what We claim is:

1. In a catalytic contact heat exchange appa,- ratus, a casing, a pair of tube sheets positioned within said casing, heat Iexchanger tubes ex,u tending between said tube sheets, headers for said tube sheets, elongated corrugated metallic core membersA positioned withinfsaid tubes con-y tacting the interior walls thereof fand khaving portions extending within said tubes, catalytic contact material` within said tubes positioned on both-sides of the Walls of said cores to substantially completely fill thel internal cross sectional area of said tubes, means forrintroducing material to be contacted with said,` catalyst into one of said headers for passage-through said tubes, andmeans for introducing a heat exchange medium into said casing. 

